Greyhawk Rebooted - 576CY

financial problems were terminal and the Sales of D&D reached $29 million in
company needed to be sold. 1985, but Gygax but by they end of the
year, Gygax was forced out of TSR Inc.
In an effort to stay in control, in March
1985, Gygax exercised his 700-share By the terms of his settlement with TSR,
stock option, giving him just over 50% Gygax kept the rights to Gord the Rogue
control. He appointed himself president as well as all D&D characters whose
and CEO, and rather than selling the names were anagrams or plays on his
company, he took steps to produce new own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg),
revenue generating products. however, he lost the rights to all his other
work, including the World of Greyhawk
To that end, he contacted Dave Arneson and the names of all the characters he
with a view to produce some Blackmoor had ever used in TSR material, such as
material. He also bet heavily on a new Mordenkainen, Robilar, and Tenser.
AD&D book, Unearthed Arcana, a
compilation of material culled from
Dragon Magazine articles. He also quickly
wrote a novel set in his Greyhawk setting,
Saga of Old City, featuring a protagonist
called Gord the Rogue. In order to bring
some financial stability to TSR, he hired
Lorraine Williams as company manager.

When Unearthed Arcana was released in

July, Gygax’s bet paid off, as the new book
sold 90,000 copies in the first month. His
novel also sold well, and he immediately
published a sequel, Artifact of Evil. The
financial crisis had been averted, but
ironically Gygax had paved the way for
his own downfall.

In October 1985, the new manager,

Lorraine Williams, revealed that she
had purchased all of the shares of
Kevin and Brian Blume—after
Brian had triggered his own
700-share option. Williams was
now the majority shareholder,
and replaced Gygax as president
and CEO. She also made it clear that
Gygax would be making no further
creative contributions to TSR. Several
of his projects were immediately shelved
and never published. Gygax took TSR to
court in a bid to block the Blumes’ sale of
their shares to Williams, but he lost.

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